Amien proposes ABRI has 15 House seats

JAKARTA (JP): Amien Rais is again calling for the Armed Forces (ABRI) to be given only 15 unelected, nonvoting seats in the House of Representatives.

Amien, the chairman of the National Mandate Party (PAN), conceded it was likely that House factions would agree to allocate 40 seats in the 1999/2004 House of Representatives to ABRI.

"Our party is against this not only because appointees (unelected representatives) in the House contradict the constitution, but also because the number is too high," he said during a meeting with Abu Hasan Sazili, chairman of the House's Special Committee deliberating the political bills, here on Monday.

He stressed that ABRI representatives must not have voting rights because they would not be elected through a general election.

He also called for an end to the practice of appointing ABRI members to provincial and regency legislatures, again stating that the practice violated the constitution.

The House's Working Committee has yet to agree on the number of House seats to be allocated to ABRI representatives. However, faction leaders have hinted that the number would likely be 40.

In the meeting, Amien also voiced his strong opposition to Golkar's proposed proportional voting system at the regency level, saying that such a system would result in legislators who were not familiar with their constituents.

He said that PAN agreed with the United Development Party (PPP) faction that the general election should be held at the provincial level, so excess votes could be lumped together to win more seats.

In addition, Amien called on the government to act only as a facilitator of the elections, adding that only eligible poll contestants should run the elections.

"We want the general election to be fully entrusted to the contestants in order to ensure its fairness."

"If the House refuses to insert our recommendations into the political bills (being deliberated), that means we are defeated politically, but people will know that we won a moral victory and that we are committed to reform," he said.

Sazili, also the deputy chairman of Golkar's faction in the House, said that all House factions were now close to reaching a compromise on the number of ABRI seats in the House.

He said his faction wanted between five percent and eight percent of the total House seats to be allocated to ABRI, the government and the ABRI faction had suggested 40 seats, the PPP faction had apparently agreed to five percent of the total seats, while the minority Indonesian Democratic Party faction had yet to reveal its stance.

"We will discuss PAN's suggestions at the Special Committee's plenary after this meeting," he said. Sazili was accompanied by Harminto A.P. of the PPP faction, Budi Harsono of the ABRI faction and Aminullah Ibrahim of the Golkar faction.

Budi said ABRI would accept whatever seats were allocated to it by the people. (rms)